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Learn how to prove a bona fide relationship for a green card marriage. Din Law Group will help you understand your responsibilities.
Green card marriage-based immigration is one of the most common ways foreign nationals gain lawful permanent resident status in the United States. U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United States fall in love with foreign nationals every day.
Whether the foreign national is a loved one from abroad or someone in the United States currently on a temporary visa, green card marriage-based immigration is common.
If you are a U.S. citizen or green card holder, you have the right to petition for an immigrant visa for your spouse so that they can apply for a green card. For higher chances of success with your green card marriage visa petition, it is best to consult with an experienced immigration attorney.
At Din Law Group, our attorneys will help you through every step to have a successful green card marriage application. We understand you may want to know the process before booking a consultation. We prepared this guide to green card marriage-based immigration for everything you need to know.
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Immigration officials carefully evaluate marriage-based visa petitions looking for signs of fraud from immigrants who intend to bypass the immigration process.
Therefore, the responsibility to prove a genuine or bona-fide relationship rests on the couple’s shoulders. It is important to have an immigration lawyer to help you file any green card marriage-based petitions.
Marriage-based immigrant visa petitions are the only family-based petitions that grant a conditional green card. This isn’t because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) wants to see if the marriage will last. It’s because they want to see if it is a fraudulent green card marriage.
Two years after a marriage-based immigrant visa petition is approved, the green card holder must file a request to USCIS to remove the conditions on their green card within 90 days before it expires. Not following this rule will result in having your conditional green card revoked.
Your foreign national spouse can’t get a green card without first being sponsored as a beneficiary of an immigrant visa petition. To be their sponsor, you must be a U.S. citizen or green card holder.
As the petitioner of your green card marriage application, you must do the following, so that your spouse can apply for a green card:
Your spouse must apply for their actual green card based off your petition. They will apply either through consular processing or an adjustment of status once a visa is available for them.
Your immigration attorney will help your file the petition, all required supplemental forms, any needed waivers, and all supporting documentation. You can prepare in advance by collecting the following:
Your immigration attorney will help make sure that you have all the needed evidence and documentation. Please remember, you must be truthful with your attorney, so they can file waivers if any are needed.
Most couples must have an interview with USCIS officers to prove that their marriage is authentic. In fact, if you don’t completely convince the official, you may even need a secondary interview known as a “Stokes Interview.” In this interview, you and your spouse will be separately interviewed about personal questions that only you would know about each other if you were truly living together as spouses.
To prove you and your spouse are in a bona-fide marriage, you will need more than just a marriage certificate. Your attorney may ask you to supply the following evidence to include in your petition:
The timeline from the date of your marriage to green card approval could take several months to a few years. The green card marriage timeline varies depending on several factors including agency backlogs and your individual circumstances.
If you are a U.S. citizen, your spouse is eligible for an “Immediate Relative” visa. Immediate Relative visas are always available with no annual cap, so your spouse’s wait for a green card will be much shorter.
If you are a U.S. citizen and your spouse is already living in the United States, your immigration attorney can file your spouse’s green card application with your petition to save time.
If you are a lawful permanent resident, your spouse is only eligible for a “Family Preference” visa. Unfortunately, there is a cap on the number of Family Preference visas that are available every year, so your spouse could be waiting a few years for a visa potentially.
If you are a lawful permanent resident, your attorney also can’t file your spouse’s application for the green card until after USCIS approves your visa petition.
Choose an immigration attorney with proven experience handling green card marriage applications.
Din Law Firm has extensive experience helping couples start their lives together in the United States. Get started with a free consultation!
At Din Law Group, PLLC, our practice is exclusively dedicated to immigration law. We have extensive experience assisting our clients with complex issues related to family-based immigration, asylum, naturalization, immigration bond hearings, and removal defense.
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